He said the decision to call on Mr. Khameneh'i to declare martial law was taken by the ultras (orthodox ayatollahs members of the Feda'iyan e Eslam) during an "extraordinary emergency meeting" held after the assassination attempt against Mr. Sa'id Hajjarian and the "explosive situation" the attack has created in the country.

Doctors of the medical team attending to Mr. Hajjarian, including two eminent Iranian specialists who came from New York said Tuesday that the patient's health was "stable".

Dr. Qahremani Qajar, a neurologist who came voluntarily from the US told reporters that since the patient was still in coma, the physicians do not really know whether the coma had been caused by the convulsion.

Confirming this diagnostic, Dr. Mohammad Reza Zafarqandi, the head of the medical team that attends Mr. Hajjarian said the convulsion has been brought under control and one should wait and see whether the patient would regain consciousness or not because he responds to some stimulation.

"In the light of the landslide victory scored by the reformists in the last Majles elections and in order to stop an irrevocable transfer of powers from the conservatives to the reformists, the hard line clerics had suggested that Ayatollah Khameneh'i, in his position of Tutor of the nation and Guarantor of the Islamic revolution, should declare martial law and suspend both the government and the Majles", the source told an Iran Press Service correspondent in Tehran.

The news of the decision was "leaked" to Grand Ayatollah Montazeri after it had been communicated to Ayatollah Khameneh'i, according to the same source.

Placed under house arrest in October 1997 on the order of Ayatollah Khameneh'i after a fiery speech delivered in Qom in which he publicly criticised the leader for his lavish, "kingly" life-style, his daily interfering with the running of the State's affairs and obstacles he creates for the president, Grand Ayatollah Montazeri nevertheless continue his remarks, reminding Mr. Khameneh'i that he too, should obey the laws of the Constitution.

In a statement issued from his residence, Mr. Montazeri condemned the attempt on the life of Mr. Hajjarian and called on the government to spare no effort in identifying those who ordered the assassination, "regardless of their rank or porsitions".

Speaking to IRNA after visiting Mr. Hajjarian in hospital, Hojatoleslam Mehdi Karroubi, a former Majles Speaker who was elected as a reformist candidate said the assassination attempt was the "outcome of the bitter side of the issue (reformists' victory) in (the february 18 sixth majlis) election that led to the victory of reformists".

"The sound and glorious holding of the parliamentary election marked a great victory for the Iranian nation, prompting ill-wishers of Iran's prosperity to create crisis and tension and resort to guns and violence so as to intimidate the vigilant and freedom loving Iranian nation", Mr. Tajzadeh said, adding that intelligence, security and disciplinary systems have started a large manhunt for the agents responsible for the crime.

However, the conservatives, taking cue from the leader who always sees the hand of foreigners in this kind of terrorist activities, are mounting a vigorous campaign to blame both the reformists and foreign agents for the assassination attempt.

Addressing Tuesday's open session of Majlis, Nateq Nouri said these days enemies of the revolution and those who have placed their hopes in aliens and are hoping in vain for the overthrow of the system are hatching plots and committing crimes, IRNA reported.

"The near coincidence in Mr. Hajjarian's assassination attempt and the attack on a residential quarter in Tehran with mortars on Monday by the terrorist Mujahedeen Khalq Organisation, indicates the fact that such vicious acts were masterminded by the enemy and led by global arrogance", Mr. Nateq Nouri observed, in an indirect reference to the United States.